Beautiful maquettes for book covers by interior designer/bookbinder of the Art Deco age, Pierre Legrain. To see more Deco covers, take a peek at BSUVA…
Pierre Legrain
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Category Archives: Book Covers
Book By Its Cover
Designs by Jason Booher…
For Mint Vinetsu, ‘Become Someone Else’, an ad campaign by Lithuanian design firm LoveAgency…thanks ZoeDesignWorks…
Peter Mendelsund‘s designs for Kafka…
I bought this book just for its cover. Might even read it one day. Illustration and design by Gary Taxali…
…thanks JohnGall…
Sybille Bedford
I’m just back from a week in Mexico, having had the pleasure of Sybille Bedford‘s 1953 classic book, ‘A Visit To Don Otavio, A Traveller’s Tale From Mexico’ to accompany me (my enjoyment of the book being added to by Jane Poulton‘s beautiful cover illustration). Bedford was known as a writer’s writer, telling and retelling her interesting life from various points of view, from her early beginnings in aristocratic Germany in 1911, her adolescent years in Italy and the South of France, growing up in the milieu of Aldous Huxley et al, to her life in America during WWII, which she fled to when her Jewish heritage became known to the Nazis. She knew journalist Martha Gellhorn well, who encouraged her to write, with wonderful work ensuing. Covering a wide range of topics, from justice (she covered the biggest trials of the 20th century), biography and travel, to brilliant autobiographical books, both fiction and memoir (‘A Legacy’, ‘Jigsaw’ & ‘Quicksands’). Of her book on Mexico she writes, ‘ I had a great longing to move, to hear another language, eat new food, to be in a great country with a long nasty history in the past and as little present history as possible‘. She arrives in Mexico with a friend, as Bruce Chatwin notes in his introduction, ‘without itinerary, without preconceptions, and with their senses wide open’…
Read Joan Acocella’s fascinating article on her in The New Yorker, Brenda Wineapple’s Paris Review‘ biography of her and Lisa Cohen’s Paris Review article on Bedford’s centenary.
Beautiful Books
Photograph by Mark Wilson of Old Royal Palace, Prague…
The book featured in the video below, designed by Irma Boom on the textile designer, Sheila Hicks, has been deemed ‘the most beautiful book in the world’ by the Leipzig Book Fair…
Irma Boom on ‘The Most Beautiful Book in the World’ from D&AD on Vimeo
Given on the eve of the Man Booker Awards to the winners of said prize, deluxe hand-bound editions made for the authors by six member of Designer Bookbinders…. Below, ’On Chesil Beach’ by Ian McEwan, bound by Peter Jones…to see more, take a peek here…
‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’, by Moshin Hammed, bound by Stephen Conway…
and ‘Animal’s People’ by Indra Sinha, bound by Lester Capon…
D’Espresso Cafe in NYC has a wall of ‘books’, which are hand painted tiles…
A spectrum of beautiful bookshelves at Adobe Books in San Francisco, created by Chris Cobb, eight volunteers, one night and 25,000 books…and listen to an NPR interview with Cobb here…
…from Chotda‘s Flickr site…
A gorgeous column of children’s books by the wonderful children’s illustration blog TheApple&TheEgg. This idea appeals to me so much; I’ll hope for many rainy Sundays to create this at my house…
Old news, but still beautiful… Coralie Bickford-Smith‘s spines for her beautifully designed series of Penguin’s ‘Great Food’ series…to view the lovely front covers click here…
…and her designs for the clothbound Penguin Classics…
Alex Ostrowski made this book about his study of what he thinks is the happiest place in the world, Denmark!…
Van Gogh’s paintings of books are featured at the Metropolitan Museum‘s interesting site, Connections, with this week’s feature by their head librarian on books…
Orange!
![[tuominen5.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_17z1rH0fJ3s/SK_YoUEAMxI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/DnGUA2qD2ao/s1600/tuominen5.jpg)
Imao Keinen, Sour Orange, Short-tailed Warbler, 1891…
Alex Katz, Orange Hat…
Andy Hazell, Prague Railway Station…
Henri Matisse, Cup Of Oranges, 1916…
Milind Mulick, The Orange Door…
![[orangedooor.jpg]](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MPxufKr4ZCo/Se9PEAQHaoI/AAAAAAAAAPc/HcI48Eu8u9I/s1600/orangedooor.jpg)
Grace Hartigan…a cover for Frank O’Hara’s book of poems…
Anthropologie in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia…thanks FlyGirls…
Muurikuja 1 Housing , Helsinki, ARK-house Architects…thanks ArchDaily…
Book covers designed by Czech graphic designer Ladislav Sutnar…thank you AMASSBLOG…
‘Still Life With Math And Oranges’, by Oliver Jeffers…
Scott Schuman, Capri…
If Rothko Had Been A Graphic Designer…
Out of Order, an exhibit on researching patterns at Gallery Fons Welters, Amsterdam, 2005. Installation of 53 sun-bleached library books from the Gerrit Rietveld Library collection by Marianne Viero and Laurenz Brunner…thanks Letterology…
…and a compliment to the above image, a group of exhibition catalogues from ‘Union of Russian Artists’…thanks RussianArtBooks…
Gabrielle Wilson
Beautiful book covers designed by Gabrielle Wilson…
With some textiles by Neisha Crossland. Thank you Book Cover Archive…
